Public Buildings and Works

Timeline

Public Buildings and Works Prehistory

The Exeter area may have been occupied for as long as 250,000 years. There is evidence of more-or-less continuous human activity since the last Ice Age; this is dispersed over the countryside, rather than in towns.

Public Buildings and Works Roman Fortress

The most impressive discovery from Roman Exeter is the legionary bath-house found under the Cathedral Green in 1971-6. It was built around AD 60 and consisted of three large halls placed side-by-side: the cold room, tepid room and hot room of the bathing suite. The discovery is of national interest, since it is amongst the earliest stone buildings ever erected in Britain. The bath-house was the central element of a complex of buildings, which included changing rooms and an open-air swimming pool, covering an area of about 4000 square metres near the centre of the fortress.

Public Buildings and Works Roman Town

Following the departure of the legion, Exeter was chosen as the regional capital (‘civitas capital') of the people of Devon and Cornwall - the Dumnonii. It was known as Isca Dumnoniorum. A new stone forum was laid out at the centre of the old fortress site, and local people who accepted Roman authority and customs soon set up shops and houses on the plots surrounding it.

Public Buildings and Works Dark Age Town

There is no evidence yet of urban life in this period. Exeter seemed to have reverted to farmland.

Public Buildings and Works Saxon Town

There is no evidence yet of public buildings within the Saxon town.

Public Buildings and Works Norman Town

The Guildhall has occupied its current site in Exeter since about 1160, but archaeologists have no idea of its original form.

Public Buildings and Works Medieval City

One of the oldest examples of a silver seal surviving from any of the towns and cities of England comes from Exeter. It dates to about 1170 - 1200 and shows an elaborate building between towers. These are symbols of wealth and security, rather than depictions of any specific building. The seal was kept at the Guildhall.

Public Buildings and Works Tudor City

A canal was constructed between Exeter and Countess Wear in 1564-6. The city chamber then began to improve both the canal and the port facilities at Exeter quay. The rebuilding of the frontage of the Guildhall in 1592-4 was the most important civic project of its day. It provided a first-floor meeting chamber for the council of twenty-four who controlled the city's affairs.

Public Buildings and Works Civil War

After the destruction of the Civil War, new civic building projects only began from about 1650.

Public Buildings and Works Golden Age

The Custom House, built 1680-1, was designed by the north Devon builder Richard Allen. It formed the centre-piece of the newly remodelled quayside. Within the building were royal customs officials and the city's own customs staff. It reflected the great commercial growth of the late 17th century and is the oldest Custom House standing in Britain. Also built at this time was Quay House. It was designed with a long ‘oversailing' roof along its frontage. This protected cargoes unloaded from the narrow dock which originally ran from the river to the building's frontage.

Public Buildings and Works Georgian City

The steep and narrow roads into the city were quite unable to cope with the increase in wheeled traffic in Georgian days. The medieval gates were inconvenient to traffic, and they were thought to trap the noxious odours associated with disease. They were therefore demolished. Higher Market, now incorporated in the Guildhall Shopping Centre, and Lower Market (destroyed 1942) were built in the 1830s to clear the streets of their markets. In the 1830s Improvements to the city water supply were made through the work of Golsworthy. He improved the flow of water from the springs in St Sidwell's by providing larger pipes of cast iron.

Public Buildings and Works Victorian City

The railway was brought to Exeter in May 1844 by the Bristol and Exeter Railway Company, connecting the city to Bristol and London after several earlier plans had failed. Its arrival caused the standardisation of time across the country; an extra minute hand was added to a clock in Fore Street to show both railway time and Exeter time.

Public Buildings and Works Modern City

After the devastation of the World War II, Thomas Sharp, the town planner, drew up proposals for rebuilding Exeter. They were published in his book Exeter Phoenix (1946). Sharp envisaged a ‘green moat' surrounding the city walls, outside which traffic would be carried by new streets by-passing the centre. He hoped to knock down the museum and replace it with a post-war building, reflecting the low esteem in which Victorian architecture was held in the 1940s. His ideas on this side of town largely failed to materialise.

View of the bath–house caldarium
View of the Roman bath–house
View of the hypocaust system in the bath–house
Wire–frame model of the bath–house superimposed over a photograph of the excavation
The museum model of the bath–house
Fragment of mosaic
Fragments of antefixes
Fragments of window glass
Fragment of a basin from the bath–house
A Lyon ware cup
Antefixes on a roof
View of the fabrica under excavation
View of the front room of the fabrica
Restored plan of the baths
Fragments of mosaic
Theatre Royal programme (back)
Theatre Royal programme (front)
Excavation in the forum, 1947
Excavation of the basilica
The steps up to the basilica
Reconstructed plan of the basilica
Plaster fragment from the basilica
The city aqueduct
The Common Seal of Exeter
A Seal Impression
The Guildhall: a modern view of the interior
Engraving of the Guildhall
Exe Bridge: a modern view
Reconstruction of Exe Bridge in late 13th century
The Seal of the Wardens of Exe Bridge
An impression from the Exe Bridge seal
Water pipes
Queen Street
Theatre Royal tickets
Heavitree police truncheons
Hayman’s engraving of the interior of Eastgate
The Guildhall façade when complete
A capital from the Guildhall facade
A sculpted panel from the Guildhall facade
The Elizabethan door of the Guildhall
’The Elizabethan portico of the Guildhall’ by Arthur Glennie
The Quay in circa 1605
The Watergate
The Theatre in Bedford Circus
Royal Albert Memorial Museum Art Gallery
The second Exe Bridge foundation plate (obverse)
Doors of the High School
The cloth market in the cathedral cloisters
The cloister today
The Exeter flute glass
The Devon and Exeter Hospital
The front of the Custom House
Quay House
Model of Quay House
Cartouche from the Guildhall picture frames
Two swags from the Guildhall picture frames
The Guildhall and High Street
Old houses on Exe Bridge
The Quay in 1676
The Quay in 1690
The Quay in c 1720–40
The Custom House c1690
Foundation stone for sluice
The Water Engine
The Custom House at Topsham
One of the Custom House ceilings
The new Exe Bridge
Aerial view of Exe Bridges
The second Exe Bridge foundation plate (reverse)
The Iron Bridge
View down the High Street following the demolition of East Gate
Market day in High Street
The Fish and Vegetable Market
The Higher Market
The façade of the Higher Market
The rear of the Higher Market
Charles Fowler’s view of the Lower Market
Charles Fowler’s plan of the Lower Market
The bronze medal of the Lower Market
The Guildhall and High Street
A felon taken to his death in 1818
The Exeter Gaol
Set of fire buckets from the Conduit
The Dean and Chapter’s fire engine
The new Post Office in Queen Street
The Albert Memorial Museum and Free Library
The railway at St David’s
The railway at St David’s
The Theatre Royal fire
Theatre Royal fire condolence card
Proposed designs for the Freemasons’ Hall
Improvements in drinking water
Opposition to paying for improvements
St Sidwell’s Board School: a model Victorian School
Thomas Sharp’s plan, 1946
Architect’s drawing of the new Dingle’s shop
Architect’s drawing for the Martin’s Bank
Model of the City Gasworks
An Exeter City Water stop–cock cover
Plan of the tram system
Tram lines exposed in Sidwell Street
A length of tram line
An Exeter tram ticket
A fireman’s badge
The interior of the museum
The earliest evidence of literacy in Devon
The front door of the Guildhall
A set of Elizabethan weights
The railway between Exeter and Exmouth, 1846
A length of broad gauge from the Great Western Railway
Thomas Sharp’s view of Exeter from the North
A lamp from County Hall, Exeter
Parliamentary Act for providing a new water supply for Exeter, 1833
View of an Exeter coal measure of 1799 (front)
View of an Exeter coal measure of 1799 (back)
Exeter Corporation Transport tram ticket
Fragment of mosaic from the bath–house
Antefixes from the bath–house
Tiles from the hypocaust
Blue glass tessera
Stone fitting from the bath–house
Concrete from the bath–house
Stone floor tiles
Tram timetable
List of persons executed at Devon County Gaol
Rougemont House Historical museum